Re: A rant from Bill Maher's recent show:

Jeff Davis <jd_home@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:bf4b2$43ea7df7$8b3738b4$31332@xxxxxxxxxx:

Chris Mihos wrote:
James Schrumpf wrote:

OK, here's a question for our Astronomer Royal: why don't planets
twinkle?

I've been told from childhood that you can tell the planets because
they don't twinkle, and that stars do because the atmosphere makes
their light waver.

But the planets' light comes through that same atmosphere, so why
_don't_ they twinkle as well?


Stars are unresolved point sources, whereas planets are resolved. see
Phil Plait's description:

http://www.badastronomy.com/bitesize/twinkle.html

and, as phil points out, planets *can* twinkle if the atmosphere is
turbulent enough.


I remember seeing a series of photographs which were used to fabricate
a disk for Betelgeuse.


yeah, that was done via speckle interferometry, if i recall correctly.

--
chris
"my point? #@&*! you, that's my point!" -- Bucky Katt
.

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